Phantom in the Window
by Blitza
Summary: There's a phantom in Anteiku's window. Kaneki decides to feed it. Now Complete. Will Eventually write a sequel.
1. Chapter 1

She's small.

It's the first thing Kaneki thinks when he sees her looking into the store.

Dressed in patched clothes, with oily, unwashed hair, and dirt practically painted onto her, she stands barely a head over the window.

Thin too, Kaneki thinks as he continues to watch out of the corners of his eyes. His break comes fifteen minutes later and she's still outside.

"Touka-san, can I take the dated cakes out?" Kaneki asks carefully. The girl looks at him shrewdly and glances out to the urchin herself. She closes her eyes briefly and gives an irritated sigh. Never the less, she nods.

Kaneki is careful to keep his own fond smile out of sight lest she see and become cranky. Touka had a large heart for children, but not for annoying co-workers who should know better than to bother her.

Instead, the young man carefully boxes a few cakes and heads outside. Kaneki doesn't approach the young girl, but he does set them only next to the trash can and not in it. Then he heads back inside to finish his shift.

Outside, the little wraith has already run to the box of food in order to begin quickly scarfing it down with the help of a fork left 'accidently'. When Kaneki next looks out, it is just in time to see her finish licking the fork clean. Something soft settles in his stomach for the first time in several weeks. Even if he is a… ghoul now, he can still help others. Granted, he'd already helped with Hinami… but helping someone with non-ghoul relating problems made it all feel much better.

Kaneki blinks, and the little wraith is gone. It is almost as if she vanished into thin air, but Kaneki puts that thought out of his head. Not even ghouls can teleport, and the girl had eaten the cake so she couldn't be a ghoul.

Maybe she'll be back tomorrow…


	2. Chapter 2

She was.

Black hair in a ponytail, messy bangs, blue eyes, patched blue sweatshirt, and tatter red shorts. She didn't look like much.

That fact did not deter Kaneki from buying a bento from the convenience store down the street, opening and declaring it to be out of date, before setting it near the dumpster. His co-workers (excepting Touka-san) just gave him the oddest looks before shaking it off as a half ghoul thing. Hopefully the homeless girl would be curious enough to go back into the alley when she saw him walk out the front door instead of just throwing it out the back entrance.

Anteiku didn't have any more dated cakes, and nobody needed to eat just cake anyway.

He didn't get to watch the girl eat it, but when Kaneki left for the night the convenience store bento had seemingly disappeared from where he had placed it.

It continued to disappear each day he brought one. Meanwhile, he stopped pretending to even be interested in the bentos. Kaneki's co-workers thought he was strange enough as he was. There was no need to make them gag at the thought of what he may or may not be eating.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ow!" Kaneki gasped as Touka elbowed him in the gut. "T-touka-san!" Kaneki gasped in pain as he grasped his side.

The dark-haired girl gave him a 'Look', before moving on to bus some tables. It took Kaneki only about a second to dart after her. Kaneki might not eat much now days, but he still had some sort of self-preservation instinct and leaving Touka (of all people) mad at him was not good for his continued heartbeat.

"Touka-san, what's wrong?" Kaneki asked with trepidation. Had he not washed everything up yesterday? Did he make someone's expresso to strong and they got onto Touka instead of him?

Touka paid Kaneki no mind as she efficiently rounded up the plates and cups from a recently abandoned table. Turning she shoved him aside before trouncing her way back behind the counter. Kaneki grimaced and followed her.

"T-Touka-san, please tell me what I've gone wrong?" Kaneki pleaded. "Whatever I've done I can't fix it or properly apologize until I know what I've done." Thankfully, his pragmatic 'I can't fully appreciate your anger until you tell me what I've done' got through. Touka sighed, set the tray down, and turned to look at Kaneki with fire in her eyes. He gulped.

"Look outside, Kaneki. Tell me you don't see a problem with this." Touka hissed dangerously.

Kaneki blinked and carefully glanced outside. A few regulars were enjoying a meet up on the veranda, some pigeons were roosting the awning, and a little plash of blue sat next to the window- oh. Kaneki glanced up uncertainly at Touka.

"I'll feed her when I go on break." Kaneki assured her. For a moment, he thought he'd fixed the problem. Then he realized that no, he had not fixed it, he had only further incited Touka's ire.

"That's the problem, you idiot!" Touka growled as she advanced a step forward. "She doesn't need to be fed she needs to go home. She's a human for Pete's sake! Somewhere out there is family either missing her, or that would happily make room for her. She doesn't need to be on the streets where she could be picked up by a ghoul or even **worse**." Touka gestured about angrily with her hands. Kaneki's eyes widened. Oh. He hadn't expected this. Touka wasn't mad at him because he hadn't fed the street child yet, she was mad because he was… in some way, enabling her to continue to live on the streets. In Touka's mind, the girl was human and thus didn't need to be on the street, both because of the inherent danger but also because, as a human, she could be safely adopted. The little girl would be able to be absorbed into a human family and taken care of in a way that ghouls would never be able to risk unless with their own flesh and blood. Touka didn't see any reason for the girl to be on the streets and thus didn't like it when Kaneki helped her _stay_ on the streets.

"I-I'm sorry." Kaneki murmured, at a loss for words. "I didn't think of it that way." Touka's gaze darkened with something Kaneki couldn't possibly place.

"No, you didn't." She brushed past him. "I'm taking the rest of the day off. Fix this by tomorrow." Touka opened the '_Employees Only'_ door but paused partway through. "Look. I'm not saying to be mean to her, or tell her to scram, but she really does need to go home. I don't particularly care how, but its not safe for her to be on the streets like this. Ghouls aside, there are still some really dangerous human monsters that could easily take a little girl like her unawares. She needs to go home; even if its not a very nice home it has got to be better than here." And with that, Touka fled the café.

Kaneki stared at the closed door for a moment what Touka had said danced around his brain. On one hand, Touka had a point. It really wasn't safe for the girl on the streets. Anteiku worked to keep many ghouls in this ward fed, but even they couldn't stop all the ghouls in this ward from hunting live humans. (Apparently fresh human tasted different… and Kaneki didn't want to think about that.) And if the ghouls didn't get her, there were still human traffickers and average human degenerates to worry about.

Therefore, it was especially unsafe for the street girl to hang around one place all the time. However, Kaneki couldn't agree with the last portion of portion of Touka's statement. His own aunt… Kaneki had never been so grateful to Hide as when he had stayed under his aunt's care after his own mother's death. The woman had never physically touched him, but the influence of her words and the sharpness of her gaze had sunk into Kaneki's skin like a poison. His grades had dropped and in grief and pain his heart had fled to a dark place. Only Hide had gotten him through that dark time by literally spending every available moment dragging Kaneki out of that apartment and into the light of the outside world.

Kaneki didn't want to send anyone back into the dark. Granted, many kids did run away for stupid reasons and some kids even just got lost and didn't know how to get back. But if the child really didn't have a nice home and family to return to, Kaneki knew he couldn't bear to send her back there.

Living like that… it wasn't really living. It was surviving and even Kaneki knew that survivors were really only the people too stubborn to die from mortal wounds.

He needed to talk to the girl. Kaneki didn't really know what he'd do, but he also knew that he could never allow her to return to a verbally or physically abusive home.

* * *

So... yeah. I started a new fic (begins whistling innocently) because I got bored of Amara's arc in Claws and Magic and needed a break. But... at least this one is only a tiny fic? Really! it is! Like, not going to even get more than 20,000 words if I have my way. Hopefully.

If it doesn't decide to do like To Be A Hero and grow exponentially to the point of spanning several series.

Yeah. Its supposed to be short, so please cross your fingers and start praying that I can actually keep something small. Cuz I'll need it.

Anyway, if you appreciate my hard work, please review. If not, leave.

~Blitza


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Kaneki simultaneously dreaded and looked forward to his lunch break. On one hand, it would allow him to send the girl home if that was really where she was supposed to be. On the other, it could also bring to light a situation that was too close to home for Kaneki to feel comfortable.

Fortunately, or not, time seemed to pass achingly slowly. The café was having one of those off days where people just… didn't feel like coffee apparently. Despite the bright sun outside and the temperate but slightly chilled breeze, there didn't seem to be a lot of people on the streets.

However, Kaneki's lunch break did indeed arrive a little after one that afternoon. Quickly, Kaneki grabbed the convenience store bento and headed out the front door like normal. However, instead of merely sitting the bento beside the back dumpster, Kaneki merely propped himself up against the wall to wait.

Hopefully, the girl wouldn't be too skittish to confront him. After all, Hide told him all the time that he didn't exactly look very impressive or strong, so that should be something a kid would notice too, right?

Kaneki sighed and kneaded at his temple with his free hand. If he was late going back to work Touka would be ticked. Yet he really couldn't put this off. Even if it meant waiting hours and being late, Kaneki couldn't take the risk of the girl not sticking around for the end of his shift.

Kaneki shuffled uncomfortably and glanced at his watch.

Five minutes went by.

Then ten.

And then, just as he was pulling out his phone to text Touka that he would be really late coming back from break, a mop of black hair peeked around the corner. Kaneki stilled all motions, feeling like one of those bird watchers who had somehow managed to coax a great horned owl within touching distance.

The black hair disappeared. Kaneki tried to make himself as danger-less as possible. Perhaps he could look as innocent as he had when covering for Hide's pranks in grade school?

Blue eyes peered around the corner again. This time, they gave him a long-measured stare down and Kaneki found himself surprised. She didn't seem very afraid, just careful. Hope gathered in his stomach. Perhaps he wouldn't be strangled and boiled for Hinami's lunch just yet.

Kaneki glanced down at the bento in his hands for a moment before looking back up.

Blue peered cautiously from only a few inches away. Somehow, the girl had practically teleported herself down the alley in order to stand directly in front of him. Needless to say, Kaneki startled. Yelping, the half-ghoul jerked away in surprise. He lost his grip on the bento and the homeless girl grabbed it before darting away. Eyes widening, Kaneki hurried after her.

"Hey, wait! I need to!... talk to you." Kaneki's initial call dropped to a mumble as he observed the empty street. No little street urchin in sight. Perhaps… he was a little too **un**impressive.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

This time Kaneki was prepared. Obviously, the little girl didn't really want to talk, so he had engineered a scenario where she would have to talk to him in order to get the bento.

Kaneki had taped some string to the bento and tied it around his hand. It felt awkward but Kaneki pushed aside his own discomfort. Just because it looked silly, didn't mean it was.

Well… it kind of was but Kaneki wasn't really sure how to get the girl to talk to him otherwise.

Kaneki checked his watch. She should be here soon…

As if on cue, a dark head peered around the corner. Blue eyes blinked at him and narrowed. Kaneki felt a shiver of foreboding creep up his spine but tried to push it away. He smiled awkwardly. He really shouldn't be feeling threatened by a little street urchin. There was no way that little girl could hurt him. She was just a little girl and he was a half-ghoul. Despite his misgivings, he had received a good bit of extra strength since the surgery…

The half ghoul blinked.

_Snk! _There was a brief feeling of the string around his palm pulling taught before the distinct sound of the tape tearing off the box sounded. Kaneki opened his eyes and looked down to see his own empty, string tied hands. The bento was gone!

When the young man looked up, he was just in time to see a brief glimpse of black hair before it vanished around the corner. Kaneki had a brief moment of confusion before the reality of the situation hit him.

She had used his moment of inattention to grab the box, rip the tape off, and run away.

Kaneki groaned. Day two and he still hadn't managed to talk with her. Touka was going to skin him alive!

* * *

_Sooo... the plot is going to be put on pause while I have some fun. Then Touka's gonna get mad and time will unfreeze. Either way... _

_Thank you all for the reviews!_


	6. Chapter 6

This time, he was going to do it! Third time was the charm after all! Kaneki grinned to himself as he stepped out into the alley with the convenience store bento in his hands. This time he would just put the bento somewhere the couldn't reach it. It wasn't as if she was very tall. The girl only came up to his stomach and Kaneki was admittedly not the tallest specimen out there. Humming softly to himself, Kaneki moved over to the opposite side of the alley and carefully wedged the bento up onto one of the adjacent building's window sills.

The sill was about a foot above Kaneki's head so there was no way someone as small as the girl would be able to get to it without help.

Kaneki gladly pulled out a book to begin reading while he waited. There was no reason he couldn't enjoy a relaxing novel.

Minutes ticked by.

Kaneki glanced at his watch. His break would end soon.

Kaneki waited a few more minutes before glancing once more at the mouth of the alley. The street girl still hadn't come. Worry prickled at his gut. She was normally here by now, had something happened?

Kaneki tried to read a few more pages of his book.

He glanced at his watch and grit his teeth. He really needed to head back in now or he'd be late for his shift. Should he just leave the bento here for her to eat later? It somewhat erased the purpose of his coming out here to talk to her, but Kaneki didn't really want her to go hungry…

But if he left it out here, and she learned that if she waited for him to go back on his shift, she wouldn't have to deal with him…

Kaneki gave a mournful sigh. He'd have to take the bento with him and pray for forgiveness at a shrine on the way home. Hopefully the little beggar girl wouldn't be too hungry tonight.

Turning, Kaneki reached his hand halfway up to the ledge before he processed how empty it was.

The bento was gone.

Kaneki blinked slowly. Sometime in between his setting the bento on the window sill and now the bento had been taken. Yet, Kaneki had stood in the same spot for the entire half hour he'd been waiting. There was no way someone could have approached it without his notice.

Kaneki lowered his face to his hands and gave a gusty, drawn out sigh. He wasn't really sure how, but the girl had managed to grab the bento again.

The third time was apparently not the charm.

* * *

_Ya'll, he tries so hard. He really does._

_Also, review are much appreciated. They kill writers block. _

_Have a great day, ya'll!_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Touka was giving him the stink eye. That, more than anything, was all the motivation Kaneki needed to put forth the effort for a fourth attempt at talking to the beggar girl. Touka was far scarier than people gave her credit for.

Giving a sigh, Kaneki looked mournfully at the clock. This would be the fourth break he'd be spending next to a particularly stinky trash bin that would occasionally contain the human bones of suicide corpses. Rats were also an often occurrence in the dumpster.

It wasn't exactly pleasant to his sensibilities.

Today the bento contained shrimp and salted rice. He hoped she liked it.

Kaneki quickly walked out to the dumpster. A rat scuttled out and across the alley, but Kaneki paid it no mind. Rather, his cheeks burned with slight embarrassment as he raised the bento box above his head. It was a little ridiculous, but he really needed to talk to the girl. Somehow, she had gotten to the bento even when he had placed it far above her head. So today he would be holding the box over his head while waiting for her to come ask for the food. She wouldn't be able to sneak the food away when he was literally holding it.

Granted, holding a convenience store bento above his head made him feel more than a little childish.

Something scuttled in the dumpster and Kaneki shot it a weary glance. He knew wild dogs sometimes came around and hoped it was only rats.

A few more minutes passed. Kaneki glanced at his watch. Normally the girl would show up about this time, yet Kaneki didn't see anything down at the mouth of the alley. He was alone with the exception of whatever was rattling about in the dumpster. The rattling lessened and Kaneki felt himself relax a little. Maybe what ever it was would leave…

**Bang! **

Something loud hit the top of the dumpster. Kaneki jumped and turned just in time to see a blue and red blur flash at his head from the top of the dumpster. Instinctively, the half-ghoul yelped and closed his eyes. Something giggled and suddenly Kaneki found himself clutching at air instead of the convenience store bento. Kaneki blinked open his eyes to the cloudy sky above and had a brief moment of confusion before pivoting around. The beggar girl, for she was the one to grab the bento, landed in a messy roll clutching her stolen goods. Glancing back, she grinned at Kaneki before bolting towards the street.

"Hey, wait! I just… want to… talk," Kaneki trailed off. Kaneki glanced back at the dumpster with more than a little incredulity. Had she really just jumped off that dumpster in order to get food? And had she been giggling?

Kaneki shook his head in defeated exasperation. Well, at least she was strong willed? That was a good trait to have… sometimes.

Touka was going to glare at him even more today.

* * *

**Yes! day three in a row of updating! I hath conquered! Mwahahahaha!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Obviously, height was not a problem for the child. She clearly had more than enough brains and guts to make up for any lack of height her youth afforded her. Also, Kaneki did not want to think about the kind of stuff she would have had to crawl over in the garbage bin in order to get to him. Ew.

So, perhaps something a little simpler would be what was called for. And really, only half-ghoul or not Kaneki was certainly strong than a starved little girl. He just wasn't going to get scared this time!

Back stiffening in determination, Kaneki strode into the alley and hurried to his usual spot beside the opposing building. Once there, he proceeded to hug the non-perishable bento to himself. He had picked out this bento specifically because he knew it wouldn't spoil when warmed by his body heat.

It was honestly kind of silly, but at this point Kaneki felt as if he had absolutely no single shred of pride remaining within his body.

So, he stood there, hugging a carrot/celery/ranch bento to his chest like a shy school girl.

Wait, no, his last bit of pride had just shriveled up and died. Kaneki's cheeks burned and he let out a long sigh. This had better work. He was running out of ideas…

Bored and unable to read due to needing to hold onto the bento, Kaneki began to pace. The girl should show up any time now…

"Wha?!" Kaneki yelped as his next step dipped too low and he tripped forward unexpectedly. Kaneki's nose quickly became painfully acquainted with the ground and he dropped the bento. It tumbled loudly on the paved concrete, but Kaneki was too busy clutching his nose to notice.

"Owww…" Kaneki groaned pathetically. He knew that his nose wasn't broken as his body was much more durable than a normal human's, but goodness gracious it certainly smarted.

Kaneki glanced back in irritation but frowned. The pavement was smooth right there. There shouldn't have been anything to trip over or get his foot caught in. And Kaneki was certainly clumsy, but he really wasn't _that_ to himself, the half-ghoul reached for the bento but came up empty. Kaneki looked about the alleyway but couldn't see the bento.

He put two and two together and groaned.

It seemed his half-ghoul strength was no match for a certain hungry street urchin.

* * *

Spring break is here! I'm saved!

Hopefully it won't be like last year.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kaneki was sure this would work. So far all of the issues had occurred while Kaneki was holding the bag or had placed the bag away from himself.

This time he would try something different.

So long as he wasn't able to drop it and didn't allow it out of his sight, the girl wouldn't be able to steal the bento, right?

Despite having what he considered to be a much better plan, Kaneki could still feel a heaving helping of doubt sinking into his soul. She'd managed to grab the bento despite all of the daunting odds Kaneki had tried to enforce. Not only was she smart and fast, the girl had also proven herself to be quite the bold one.

She seemed like the type that was hard to discourage. AKA: a younger Hide.

Still, failure or giving up wasn't an option here. Touka really would gut him if Kaneki didn't fix this soon.

Taking a deep, depressed sigh, Kaneki mourned the loss of another break from work in what would likely amount to another stolen bento.

Kaneki morosely stepped into the alley way. On his front, Kaneki wore his old backpack backwards in an attempt to avoid losing the bento stored within. Taped on the front, a piece of paper with the words "I just want to talk" fluttered like the white flag of surrender. Taking a few measured steps, Kaneki made his way to his newly familiar waiting spot and dug out his book. If he was going to wait for fifteen minutes, he was at least going to enjoy it.

…

A few minutes passed by…

Kaneki glanced up. No red beanie or blue eyes could be seen peeking around the corner. Kaneki gave a suspicious huff and carefully tested the weight of the bag. It hadn't changed. The girl hadn't somehow popped in without his notice and taken the bento using ninja skills. Thank goodness for small mercies.

He would wait a few more minutes.

Five minutes turned to ten and Kaneki furtively glanced at his watch. She should have appeared by now. Kaneki shook the bag. Damn it. It was lighter.

He opened it.

The bento was missing.

Kaneki's fears had come to fruition.

He wasn't sure how the little street urchin had done it, but some how she had snuck up to him and grabbed the bento right out of his backpack.

* * *

Tadah!

I exist! And I prove it by writing! Woohoo!

Also, spring break was not a train wreck this year! I mean, my sister separated her growth plate from whatever it was attached to, my other sister's car died halfway back to school, and I had to help renovate a bathroom but hey! No body tried to murder themselves, I was not put on a liquid diet thanks to the removal of my wisdom teeth, I didn't experience pain due to quitting the pain meds early, and no police officers knocked at the front door at four o-clock with my other sister after she got into a high speed chase with her boy toy. I feel sorry for the boy.

But yeah! This break wasn't half as crazy as last year! Thank goodness for small mercies, right?

Have a wonderful week!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Touka cornered him the next day. She stood with her feet spread shoulder width apart and a stern, very terror inspiring glare.

Kaneki gulped.

The stove top burned warm behind him but all he could feel was the ice running along his spine and into his heart.

"Ah, Touka-san. Good morning, how are you today?" Kaneki asked politely while looking for some avenue of escape. He could jump over the cake displays but that would scare the customers. Some days he's pretty sure he does that enough.

Touka continued to glare at him.

"Kaneki. Why is she still here?"

"Why is who still here?" Kaneki asked with more courage than he thought he had as he tried to ease his way past her. She angrily slammed her arms down on the counter top with a loud bang; Kaneki stopped. The human customers paused to look and stare, but the ghouls just continued sipping their coffee. They were used to this.

"Cut the crap, idiot. You know very well who I'm talking about! The runaway you said you would send home!" Touka growled furiously. Kaneki swore he saw the pits of hell in her eyes. The half-ghoul gulped and leaned back a little further against the occupied oven and the boiling soup of the day.

"Oh, her."

"Yes, her." Touka spat angrily. "Why haven't you sent her home like you said you would? I told you how dangerous it is for kids to be on the street; do you just not care what happens to her?" Something hot burns in Kaneki's belly at Touka's words.

"Of course, I care." Kaneki murmured as he looked down. Of freaking course, he cared. He wouldn't have spent the whole week killing his pride and his break time if he didn't care. Kaneki didn't want the little girl to be hurt or killed, but he couldn't send her back to an abusive home either.

"Then why haven't you-"

"Ahem," Someone cleared their throat loudly. Touka and Kaneki turned to see the manager standing by the staff door. Behind them, even the ghoul customers have turned away from their coffee to watch the train wreck that has become Kaneki's life. Apparently, it's just that interesting. "If you have a problem with each other, I would like to ask that you take it into the back room or outside Anteiku. Koma-san is early, and I'll call Irmi in to cover your shift. Please work this out amongst yourselves," Yoshimura decided. Kaneki felt a heavy blush crawl its way across his cheeks. While nothing in his speech denoted a negative emotion, Yoshimura's tone of voice chastised them quite soundly.

Wordlessly, Kaneki followed Touka to the back room.

* * *

Only a few chapters left now guys. Hope you enjoy!


	11. Chapter 11

"Okay, idiot. Talk; why have you not told the street girl to go home?" Touka growled out. She stood before Kaneki once more, hands on her hips as she glared him down. The half-ghoul shifted uneasily and swallowed noisily.

"Its not that I don't want to help keep her safe, its just, um…" Kaneki trailed off. He didn't know how to put his intentions into words without saying too much. His reasons for wanting to help the street urchin were personal; no one else needed to know about his aunt and just how close he had come to running away when he was younger. Touka took a threatening step forward at his lacking reply, however. Kaneki felt more uneasiness pool in his stomach at her threatening movements. It was times like these that Touka really did remind him of an apex predator.

"Just what?" She asked as she furrowed her delicate brows. "Why haven't you told her to go back to her family? Its dangerous for her to be on the streets, Kaneki. You know this, so why haven't you done anything?"

"U-um… I just, I just wanted to make sure she had family to go back to… and that they were nice." Kaneki managed to stutter out. "B-but I haven't been able to talk to her. She always runs away before I can." Kaneki kept his eyes trained to carefully to the side as he tried to explain the mess inside his head and heart. As such, he didn't see the momentary surprise and growing fondness that flashed across Touka's face. The girl huffed softly in amused irritation.

"That's it? You've just been too shy to approach her?" Touka asked. Kaneki blinked. Had Touka misheard? Kaneki risked a look at Touka's face and was surprised to see her raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Um, no. I've tried to talk to her every day for a week. She, uh, just keeps stealing the food before I can talk to her. I even tried putting it out of her reach, but she somehow grabbed it anyway." Kaneki explained sheepishly. There was a pause as Touka digested the information.

"You… couldn't keep food away from a twelve-year-old little girl?" Touka asked incredulously.

"Um, well, you see-" Kaneki's fumbled explanation was cut off by Touka's near hysterical giggling.

"Oh my freak, Kaneki. You got owned by a little human child!" Touka gasped out. She bent over as her giggles turned to stomach clenching laughter. The anger and tension that had suffused the room dissipated at her laughter.

Kaneki felt his cheeks start to burn and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Technically, she wasn't wrong. He had let a human child basically run wild and steal from him. For any ghoul this would have be humiliating. Heck, even for the human Kaneki once was it would have been a low blow to his pride as a man. As a half ghoul, Kaneki should have been faster, stronger, and smarter than a mere beggar girl. The fact that he wasn't said more about Kaneki's cautious temperament than his physical capabilities.

Finally, Touka calmed enough to get her breath back.

"Okay then, I guess I'll have to go get her then. You obviously can't." She gave him a raised eyebrow, as though expecting him to disagree with her assessment. He couldn't so she continued "You normally feed her around this time, right? I'll go grab her and bring her in here so that you can talk to her." Touka assured him with a smile. Then she grinned and snickered behind a raised hand. "Sheesh, I can't wait till I tell the others about this, they'll laugh their asses off!" Touka crowed before heading out.

* * *

I envisioned two options for Touka's response. Laugh her butt off or be all nonplussed and ask him how stupid/inept he has to be to not be able to catch little Dani. Touka needs to laugh more in my opinion, so I let her laugh a little.

Also, as for Dani's name... I don't really like it? It sounds too close to Danny and while he won't be making an appearance in this story, I never like how most fanfiction writers handle the clone aspects of Danny Phantom fanfiction. Ergo... I think she's going to go by Ellie or Ella or something. Any thoughts on that?

Also, she is not going to view Danny as her father figure. Eww. He's only three years older than her at most. Instead, he's going to be that weird big brother dude who doesn't understand the intricacies of female thought.

Also... hey! I'm still alive! And with an A on college trig class too! Yay! (that's what I've been slaving over since the end of spring semester and also why I haven't updated... sorry.)

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

_Please review if you like this story, it tells me you appreciate the time I put into it_.


	12. Chapter 12

Kaneki fiddled with a few things in the back room while he waited for Touka to return. He put away a few supplies that had been left out and had just been going to fetch the broom when the back door slammed open. Kaneki looked up to see Touka storm into the room, pulling the beggar child by the back of the neck.

Planting one foot in front, Touka heaved the beggar girl over her head and onto one the couches. Straightening, Touka directed her furious gaze to Kaneki.

"You didn't mention how much of a brat she is." Touka growled. Kaneki blinked.

"Um, I told you she wouldn't let me talk to her. D-did you have to-… to drag her like that? You could have hurt her. The bones and muscles int the neck are very-"

"Kaneki." Touka interrupted firmly. "I very much did need to. She's a freaking brat. Now talk to her. I'm certainly not wasting any more of my time with her." Touka huffed imperiously and strode to the other end of the room. Once there she folded her arms and proceeded to watch him. Kaneki frowned in distaste but didn't get into another argument with Touka. Once scarcely avoided homicide in Anteiku was more than enough for today.

Instead, Kaneki approached the little street urchin. Now that he was a little closer to her, and she wasn't moving around, he could get a better view of her. She was a small thing, short with a dark mess of hair atop her head. She wore a faded blue hoodie and some rather raggedy red shorts. From within the protection of her messy bangs, sharp blues eyes peered out warily. Most surprisingly however, were her clearly foreign looks. If Kaneki were to guess heritage, he would say American or British. Maybe Italian. If she was foreign, what was doing so far away from home?

"Hello, my name is Kaneki. What's yours?" Kaneki asked soothingly. The girl raised an eyebrow. Kaneki faltered. "Err, do you speak Japanese?" Kaneki floundered for a moment. If the girl didn't speak Japanese, he didn't know what he'd do. Call the police probably. Maybe they could find the parents irresponsible enough to lose a child in Tokyo. Luckily it didn't come to that.

With a dramatic sigh, the girl finally responded.

"Of course I understand Japanese. Why would I go to a place where I can't speak the language?" The beggar girl rolled her eyes angrily. From the wall, Touka shifted noisily. Kaneki paused and had a brief moment of realization. Touka hated mouthy brats; especially when they were human. This girl was clearly getting on her last nerves. Time to hurry this talk along, then.

"Oh, that's great! What's your name then?" Kaneki asked. He forced some cheer into his voice but was only rewarded by another raised eyebrow. It seemed the little vagabond was quite determined to maintain her anonymity. Based on that fact, Kaneki felt that it was safe to assume the girl was a runaway, rather than a misplaced child. If the girl had merely been accidentally separated from her parents, she would have given her name and asked to be taken to her parents. By hiding her name, the girl was keeping any relation to her family secret and avoiding being sent straight back to them.

"Okay, you clearly don't want to tell me your name so… I'll just call you…" Kaneki looked around for something to call the young girl. His eyes wondered over to some foreign brand of coffer the manager had wanted to try out.

"Ella. I'll call you Ella for now. Okay?" Kaneki smiled. Again, he got another unimpressed, raised eyebrow.

"Sureeee…" 'Ella' drew out the vowel to denote her full displease of the name. Kaneki was suddenly reminded of a teenaged Hide. Great…

"Ella," Kaneki began before faltering. There really was no nice way to say this. "Did your family hurt you? Is that why you ran away?" The girl's eyes widened.

"What? No! Danny would never hurt me!" Ella gasped out. She sat up straight and glared at him. "My big brother would never hurt me! Don't you dare say something like that about him!" Kaneki narrowed his eyes.

"And your parents? What about them?" The half-ghoul questioned calmly. Just because she loved her brother, it did not mean that her parents were above suspicion.

"I-I… I don't have any!" The girl declared boldly after a momentary stutter. Kaneki took note of it. There was a story there, but not one for today.

"Okay, then why aren't you with your older brother?" Kaneki pressed. He moved closer to her position on the couch and kneeled to become level with her eyes. "It's a big brother's job to take care of his younger siblings. Why isn't he taking care of you?"

"He…" Ella looked away as a dark look passed over her face. "His family doesn't know about me. He offered to take me in, even though that would make things tough for him. But I couldn't let him do that, so I left. I'm fine on my own. I don't need anyone to take care of me." Kaneki raised an eyebrow in confusion. How could the brother's parents not know they had another daughter? It didn't make sense! Unless…

"So, he's your half-brother then? That's why his parents don't know about you?" Kaneki asked. The girl's eyes widened before she nodded. Kaneki sighed. These situations were never pleasant. Obviously, the siblings' father had been somewhat promiscuous after Danny's birth and that promiscuity had created Ella. Later, Ella's mom had either died or left her, culminating in the child seeking out her birth father. Somehow that had led to Ella and Danny meeting, which then led to Ella striking out on her own so as to preserve the marriage between Danny's mother and the half siblings' father. And even if she did approach Danny's parents, the most she would likely achieve would ruining Danny's family and gaining an unwilling guardianship from her birth father. That option could be worse than being on the streets in Kaneki's own experience with his aunt.

"There's no one else you can stay with? Any family from your mother's side?"

Again, Ella shook her head. Kaneki resisted the urge to press his palm to his eyes and blot out the world. Why did life have to be so cruel to its children? Ella didn't deserve either of her two options. Being on the street, if it didn't kill her in the short term, would take away her future y depriving her of school or higher learning opportunities. Going to her birth father would wreck her half sibling's family and place her with a father that never wanted her.

It wasn't fair! Ella deserved to be raised with love and care just as much as any other child. If only there were some way for Kaneki to help her!

Kaneki went still as an absolutely impossible idea crossed his mind. He really shouldn't… he wasn't financially stable, he was still getting used to being half-ghoul, he was a freaking half-ghoul for crying out loud, he lived in a tiny apartment and was gone most of the day…

Yet, if he didn't who would? No one else had stepped up to help Ella and most likely nobody would. If he wanted to help her, how could anyone else say no when they weren't offering any better alternatives?

* * *

All the reviews got me really excited to be working on this story! Plus I'm trying to push through as the ending is literally only a chapter or two away. Thank you all for the nice reviews!


	13. The End

"Okay. Do you want to stay with me?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth Kaneki felt like regretting them. Neither he nor Hide were very subtle, but surely, he could have done something better than that. Now, Kaneki could feel Touka's murderous glare as well as see Ella's shocked eyes.

"What?" Ella asked in shock.

"Erm," Kaneki floundered for minute. Well, in for an inch in for a mile… "You don't have anywhere to go, right? But you can't stay on the streets; its too dangerous." Ella glared at him.

"Its fine. I can take care of myself." The beggar girl huffed. She puffed up slightly, as if to appear bigger or more threatening but Kaneki didn't let that deter him.

"No, you can't. If you could, you wouldn't be here getting food from me every day." Kaneki argued. On the inside, the half-ghoul shied away from how firm he was being. He really didn't like confronting people, but he couldn't let Ella get herself hurt because she was too stubborn to accept help.

"You don't know that. I could just enjoy making you-"

"Ella, please," Kaneki interrupted. "I don't want to see you get hurt. You need to get off the street before you're caught by someone. I won't try to make you go to school and I won't put any pressure on you, I just want to get you off the street. My apartment has an extra room. You can have it and a key of your own." Kaneki promised. He knew he was being brash; she could easily use any trust he gave her to rob him blind. Yet Kaneki's heart shuddered at the thought of the young girl's death. She was bright and young. She didn't deserve a life on the streets. Ella glared at him before glancing back at Touka.

"If I say no, she's just going to drag me off to child services, isn't she?" Ella's tone was flat, but wisps of anger could be seen in her eyes. She didn't appreciate being cornered like this.

Touka nodded. Frankly, the ghoul would have preferred to drop the kid off at the nearest foster home and be done with it. Kaneki was a half ghoul. He couldn't afford to live with anyone else lest they discover his secret! Touka didn't know what the hell the idiot was thinking. She didn't stop him though. If the idiot wanted to make idiotic choices regarding who he trusted, that was his mess to get into. Live and learn, as they say.

Ella looked back at Kaneki after getting a nod from Touka.

"You won't try to boss me around or be my parent, right?" She asked skeptically. She didn't want anymore parents, not after Vlad. Kaneki breathed a sigh of relief.

"Correct. I'm a bit young act like that anyway." Kaneki mumbled sheepishly. "I just want to make sure you're well fed and have a roof over your head." Ella weighed his words carefully.

"Fine. But if I don't like it, I'm gone." The beggar girl promised as she sent a challenging look Kaneki's way. Predictably, Kaneki looked away uncomfortably.

"If you don't behave, I'll take you down to Child Services myself." Touka promised as she stepped forward, taking the attention away from Kaneki. Ella flinched and looked away.

"Whatever." Kaneki found it in himself to give a strained smile. This would certainly be… a change. Hopefully a good one.


End file.
